Towards more virus-savvy youth
June 25, 2020
TAY Wee Beng
Senior Curriculum Specialist (Biology)
Curriculum Planning and Development Division
Ministry of Education (MOE)
B.Sc. in Life Sciences (2004); NUS-Australian National University Joint M.Sc. in Science Communication (2012)
Wee Beng is part of the team at MOE that developed learning packages on COVID-19, to inform and educate students on the virus.
During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Wee Beng was majoring in life sciences and working on her undergraduate research in microbiology at NUS. Her studies took on a new level of relevance and significance as she witnessed the epidemic’s spread.
With this experience, she realised the importance of helping students to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic to cope with it, as they have no recollection of the SARS epidemic.
“Some of the ideas about how the virus attacks the body and how the immune system responds to it can be complex for kids. We use multimedia technologies like animations to explain such concepts. One example is to liken the white blood cells to police in our bodies fighting the virus,” she says.
With this knowledge, students can play an active role to take care of themselves and their families.
“You have to know your enemy to fight it,” says Wee Beng.
